Port Cocktails

Each year we look forward to the most cheesiest time of year - Eurovision!

This year the cocktails had to be port based.  Four years ago, I made my own homebrew port using hedgerow fruits, unfortunately, the end result was only ok.

First cocktail of the evening was the Devil a delicious and easy drinking mixture of port, vermouth and lemon juice.  To sweeten up the flavour I swapped the lemon juice for a 1/2 measure of limoncello.

A great source for port cocktails in general is portcocktails.com.  From this site we sampled the Bar Drake Manhattan and the Louisville Julep.  Both drinks are packing a serious amount of high alcohol spirits but are surprising pleasant despite this. 

The Bar Drake Manhattan smartens up the much abused bourbon by blending with maple syrup, port and a dash of bitters.  Sweet/sour and intense, this is a cocktail that makes you sit up and take notice.

On the flip side, the Louisville Julep was unashamedly strong.  An equal mixture of port, brandy and rum was mixed with sugar and mint to create a refreshing drink with deep bold flavours.  A must try for anyone who likes their favourite dark spirit on the rocks.

 

Congratulations for Austria. 

We were robbed again.

Mint Madness: Body Scrub

I've done some research and recipes for mint are scarce.  Often involving cucumber, feta and/or peas.

Until I stumbled upon a wealth of beauty recipes.  In particular, this mint body scrub caught my eye.  I loath buying extra ingredients, especially for something out of ordinary and unlikely to be repeated.  This was made using back of the cupboard ingredients.

Mint and Lavender Body Scrub

6 - 12 mint leaves
Dried lavender (optional)
Course sea salt
1 tsp. oil e.g. olive, jojoba etc.
1 tsp. lemon juice
A few drops of lavender essential oil (or any other you have handy)

In a blender or pestle and mortar grind up the salt, mint and dried lavender if using.

Add the remaining ingredients, giving everything a good stir.

Rub into body using deep circular movements.  Rinse off and pat dry.

I like a good scrub from time to time and found this one has a good balance of scrub and moisture.  Too often body scrubs can be abrasive and leave you feeling so moisturised you feel claggy with grease.  This scrub left my skin feeling nicely moisturised without ruining the towel or oiling the bath tub.  And, you can alter the texture yourself.  I found just a few minutes with the pestle and mortar gave me a small enough grain so the mixture could be worked into the skin whilst being scrubby enough to feel cleansing.

Mint Madness: Mint Julep

The mint has struggled desperately for years.  It's not set in a pot in the ground so by all accounts it should have taken over the world by now.  It's problem is that it resides in the garden of doom, a garden in which only the hardiest of natures survivors will remain.

This year however. . .

I am now the proud onlooker of a thriving bush of the refreshing stuff.  Now I need to work out what to do with it all.

Mint Julep

I like a minty muddled mojito but love the sweetness that comes from the julep.  So refreshing and very easy to pull together.  As with most cocktails, ensure you have plenty of ice.

Handful of mint (or 8 - 12 leaves)
Teaspoon of sugar
1 shot of bourbon (25ml - 35ml)
Ice

Add the mint and sugar to your glass and bruise them together until they look like an expensive sugar scrub.  Try not to break up the leaves too much.

Add bourbon and ice, then stir until the sugar has dissolved and the ice has started to melt and blend into the mixture.

 

Kick back, relax and enjoy!

A few dodgy meals

We've had a couple of questionable meals this week.  Liver and onions, that isn't a personal favourite of mine, followed by beef stew that I hadn't made the night before.  When I got in at 7.30pm, from work, I only stewed it for 30 mins and the beef was tough!  Although, my Dads upbeat response was to proclaim the extra chewing made the beef feel like it was going further.

This reinforced the fact that, on this diet, planning and preparation are essential.

An interesting change for me and my Dad is we're now feeling full with just the main meal.  Last week the meals were making me feel physically full but not in the way that meat makes you feel contentedly full.  Come dessert time, we're just not fussed.  I made a mocha whip last night, consisting of flour, cocoa and black coffee.  Sounded dubious but whipped up into a tasty mousse like concoction that wasn’t filling but was just right to give us a taste of chocolate.

The funniest event this week was over lunch at work, munching my haslet sandwich.  The discussion over lunch often turns to what I’m eating today and this was no different.  However, today, the discussion quickly turned to what I could spread in the sandwich and the various methods people remembered their Mother/Grandma etc. using to make food go further.  I’ve found this happens a lot.  People either look at me as if I’m mental or start quizzing me on what I’m eating and how I’m using up this ration or that ration and offering excellent advice on what their family would do to eke out rations.

The Country definitely still has a good grip on the struggle at home through the war years.

Rationing: A few days in

It's almost a week and its been interesting.

Firstly, the shopping came in at a 1/3 of the normal price!!! Hopefully, the normal shopping for 10 days should roughly pay for the whole of January.

The first day was deceiving, we had cheesy breaded potato and a raw root veg salad that was gorgeous. There was plenty of cheese (4oz.) for the 1lb of mash and the grated parsnip, turnip, carrot and watercress with an interesting dressing was also delicious. The dressing was made from a mix of milk and vinegar and was arguably better than modern vinaigrette.

I had a hard time over day 2 and 3 as the meals were lacking in meat and I went through a protein obsession. It was a bacon hotpot with only 3 rashers of bacon followed by a vegetable stew. I honestly considered buying a tin of Spam to eat straight from the tin! I stuck with it though and since I've not felt deprived at all.

It helps that we are able to have a dessert most nights and there are plenty of bulky carbs to fill up on. The most interesting dessert was the chocolate cake. This had half the sugar and less than half of the fat you'd normally use. It was instead bulked out with grated raw potato and bulky is definitely the word I'd use to describe the eating experience.

Overall, I'm realising how many empty calories I was adding to meals before and how, with a little effort, I can think more about my weekly meal planning and create tasty healthy meals.

Rationing Diet

It's January, we've eaten too much and it’s time to pull in the purse
strings. Sound familiar?

Before Christmas me and my Dad hatched a plan. It seemed brilliantly
simple and would also a be fun way to experience history. We decided to go on a
World War 2 rationing diet!

I’m using two books for reference,

For one month we will be living on the following rations per adult:
Bacon and ham: 4oz (100g)
Meat: To the value of 1s.2d (6p today). Sausages were not rationed but difficult
to get; offal (liver, kidneys, tripe) was originally unrationed but sometimes
formed part of the meat ration.
Cheese: 2oz(50g) sometimes it went up to 4oz (100g) and even up to 8oz (225g).
Margarine: 4oz (100g)
Butter: 2oz (50g)
Milk: 3 pints(1800ml) occasionally dropping to 2 pints (1200ml). Household milk
(skimmed or dried) was available: 1 packet per four weeks.
Sugar: 8oz (225g)
Jam: 1lb (450g) every month
Tea: 2oz (50g)
Eggs: 1 fresh egg a week if available but often only one every two weeks. 1 packet equals 12 eggs every four weeks.
Sweets: 12oz (350g) every four weeks

The first challenge was calculating the current value of the 1s.2d. After much searching and comparing, this turned out to be £1.70. For my experience I've set a few rules: Offal and sausages are hard to get so we're only having these a couple of times I haven't been able to find dried eggs so I'll just be using fresh, 1 packet of dried egg was equivalent to 12 eggs.

I'm averaging the cheese ration to 3oz per week. I've found it’s not the rationed items that are causing difficulties but actually the non-rationed items. Information on availability and cost is scarce and my Nana was quite young when she lived through rations. Spam, for example, was not rationed but there's no guidance on how easily it could be bought and how expensive it was. In addition, there was a points system for certain foods. There is little information on the food available through this so I have spent our points on dried fruit and dried peas and pulses.

Pontack Sauce

The latest recipe I've tried is Pontack Sauce. I have yet to meet someone who has heard of this sauce but apparantly it goes well with game!

I started by boiling 500ml of cider vinegar, then pouring this vinegar over 500g of fresh elderberries. It is best to do this in a casserole dish because the next step is to leave the vinegar mix in a low oven overnight. I did mine during the day and heated it for 7 hours.

At the end of heating, strain the berries from the mix and boil again for 10 mins with the following added:

1 onion chopped finely
1 tbsp peppercorns
1 tsp cloves

After boiling, bottle the liquid (including the spices).

Now leave for 7 years.

No, seriously. This the advised leaving time but I think mine will be getting tasted before 7 years!

Now to find something to sample it with!